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| Ashokan Station Trailhead Parking |
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| From the kiosk at the center of the parking lot, we turned right heading west. |
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| I had sprained my ankle two weeks prior so I needed an easy hike since my ankle wasn't quite 100% yet. |
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| Straight ahead is the Boiceville Station Trailhead. This was out turn around point. |
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| Side trail back to the parking lot. |
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| Parking at the end of Big Hollow Road. I got the last space in the lot at 8 AM. By the end of the hike cars were lining the road. |
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| Continue on Big Hollow Road. It will turn into the red-blazed Black Dome Range Trail. |
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| It had rained a lot in previous days so there were several flowing rivulets to cross. |
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| Signing in at the trail register. I was so exhausted at the end of the hike I forgot to sign out. |
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| Batavia Kill was raging from all of the rain. |
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| Fortunately there were bridge crossings. Well, for the most part. |
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| The trail was often flowing water. |
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| This is where the yellow Batavia Kill Trail goes to the left. There is a bridge crossing up ahead off the trail. |
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| We would be returning on the yellow trail. For now, on and upward on red. |
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| This crossing had no bridge. I went upstream a bit but there were never enough rocks to rock hop over and the water was raging so back to a quieter part, shoes and socks off and barefoot across. Had it been the end of the hike I would have forded on over but not this early on. I thought Brodie was behind me but turns out he could not find a way over. The promise of "Brodie! Cookies!" along with holding a cookie up for him to see made him cross. And yes, he got the cookie. |
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| Now things start to get steeper. |
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| In the col between Black Dome and Blackhead I needed to decide if I should go for Black Dome also, knowing I would still have to climb Blackhead. Only .6 miles? What the heck, let's give Black Dome a shot. |
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| This is where things got complicated. We had already been up a few short scrambles and I had to mentally be aware that we also needed to descend back down. |
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| It didn't get any better so I decided to abort and head back. |
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| Retracing back to the col with Blackhead up ahead. |
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| Believe it our not, they had camp stoves going and were cooking lunch. Seriously? You can't take PB&J on a hike? It was all I could do to get Brodie past the aroma. Hello, any bears out there? |
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| Starting up Blackhead which wasn't nearly as bad as Black Dome. |
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| The trail flattens out at the top. |
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| People who would do this should not be allowed to hike. Brodie was the bigger person and packed it out in his backpack. |
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| At the summit of Blackhead. |
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| Now on to the blue Escarpment Trail. |
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| So far nice and easy. But don't be fooled. |
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| Here the trail goes down. Steeply. Very, very steeply. |
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| The rocks were wet and slippery and it was very slow going, often having to sit on a rock with flowing water and scoot down on my behind. Not having to deal with getting down with a dog would have made it easier and faster. |
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| Looking back up the way we can down and seriously, it is worse than it looks. |
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| It's along descent, would have been easier going up rather than down. It finally smooths out. |
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| Now left on the yellow Batavia Kill Trail. |
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| Even though this was much easier hiking, my knees were screaming from that steep descent. |
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| Back at the intersection with the red Black Dome Range Trail where we took the bridge over. |
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| Retracing on red back to the parking lot. |
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| Back at the parking lot, there were cars everywhere lining the road. |
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| I didn't see that many people on the trail but it is also an access point for Windham High Peak and Acra Point, a MUCH easier hike that we did on October 10, 2011. |
